A FAMILY which kept flea-ridden cats locked in their house despite being banned from owning pets has been sentenced.

The cats were discovered after a raid by police and RSPCA inspectors just days after a court ordered Pauline Sharpe, Stephen Sharpe and Sean Perryer they could no longer keep animals.

Pauline Sharpe, 60, husband Stephen, 53, and her son Sean, 41, all of Dunnetts, Knaphill, deliberately misled officers and kept three cats which were each suffering from a range of injuries and diseases.

At Guildford Magistrates' Court on Thursday (July 28) all three admitted breaching a disqualification, causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, and failing to ensure animal welfare.

Describing the raid executed by police and the RSPCA on February 23, prosecutor Paul Green said: "Pauline Sharpe was present at the time and she refused the officers entry but she could be seen to throw two of the cats over the garden fence."

In January, the Sharpes had pleaded guilty at Woking Magistrates' Court to failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the needs of 11 cats they were keeping.

The family was granted a two-year conditional discharge and banned for life from owning animals, with a parrot named Charlie confiscated and re-homed.

Mrs Sharpe, who referred to herself as an "animal lover" to probation officers and police, later admitted that the three cats found in February,

Pekachu, Leggy and Flash, had been temporarily sent to her brother's house after the January hearing before she brought them back home.

When the cats were inspected by Pet Doctors vets in Woking, surgeon Graham Godfrey found one had "intense skin irritation and flea infestation" while another appeared to be blind and missing the lower part of one leg.

Mitigating for all three, solicitor Michael Jones said: "All three of them are extremely sorry and contrite for the matter being brought back before the court."

He explained that both men were often away from home for long periods working for a haulage company, and Mrs Sharpe kept the cats to "give her some comfort".

Probation officer Natasha Coutts said all three, while admitting their guilt, had failed to comprehend the seriousness of their actions.

She said: "All three were really unable to accept any harm had come to these cats at all despite being charged on the matted fur and the discharge from the eyes."

Sentencing, Joan Lindsay, chairman of the bench, told the trio: "We have viewed this as a very serious offence and that's particularly because the disqualification was handed down only shortly before you were found with three animals.

"What you did is you deliberately flouted the court order to deceive people."

All three defendants were given 12-week prison sentences, suspended for one year, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £500 each.

Both Perryer and Stephen Sharpe were both told to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work, while Pauline Sharpe will be subject to an electronically monitored curfew for one month between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

Following the sentence, Paul Green, speaking on behalf of the RSPCA, said: "This is good in terms of the time and money the RSPCA have put into this investigation.

"A lot of the time these concerns are underplayed because we don't have a victim who can speak."